Going Back Four Years
by greendayontheradio
Summary: In high-school, Bella and Edward were the stars of TOTS musical, and were close. Really close. But then he graduated, and moved away. So imagine Bella's surprise when he comes back for the first time, and they see each other. She remembers him, but does he remember her? Will they rekindle their romance? Or just part ways awkwardly? R&R :)


**This isn't Beta'd, so bear with me please.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the storyline. All characters, backstories and setting belong to Stephanie Meyers.**

Time is but an illusion created by the manufactures of space. And for some reason or another, they make it drag on too damn long during school hours. I'd seriously consider starting a petition for some sort of time speeder, but I'd probably be considered crazy. I don't think I'd mind if we got to choose all the subjects we did, but – because our school system sucks – we get allocated five of our subjects.

I was drawing a pattern of crosses on my notebook, completely ignoring the teacher that was droning on at the front of the room. It was the only class that I could zone out in, and not get called up on it. He just didn't pay attention to us.

"Miss Swan, would you please pay attention. I'm not getting paid to receive half the class' attention!" Mr. Hill's raised voice broke through my reverie, and I looked up, surprised.

Make that, didn't pay attention to us…_usually_.

"Sorry, sir." I muttered, and looked up towards the board.

We were studying Romeo and Juliet – which apparently we had to go through and read, scene for scene. There were a few people that were into it – but the rest of us were just getting put to sleep. But I had to at least pretend to pay attention for the rest of our time, so I looked up, and listened to people dully recite lines from act five.

Twenty boring ass minutes later, the bell rang signaling lunch, and I hurried to shove my books back into my bag, and about ran out the door. The school was small, little over 300 people went here, but they still managed to make quite a crowd as they hurried through the halls towards the cafeteria. I stayed towards the edges of the corridor, and managed to get to my locker without being pushed or bruised.

The lockers were old, and rather sticky because of all the rain and fog that came through. They were painted this faded blue color, but it had long since been redone. I popped my locker open, and shoved my books inside, knowing I wouldn't need any for the classes after lunch. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and tensed up. _She wouldn't, not here?_ I thought to myself frantically, as I spun around.

Instead of finding a tall, strawberry blonde bitch, I found the grinning baby face of my best friend. Despite being several inches taller than me, and wrapped in muscle, I started hitting him in the chest with my hand.

"Emmett, you scared the crap out of me!" I yelled, continuing to hit him.

"Whoa, Bells calm down," he said, grabbing my wrists, "She wouldn't get you here. Besides, she's with Rose."

I huffed and tugged my hands back, which he let go of promptly.

"I don't know how you can stand being around her," I muttered, turning to close my locker, and walk down the hall. He caught up too quickly.

"She's perfectly nice," he said, but added, "To…most people." when I looked up at him with my eyebrows raised.

"Guess I'm not most people." I sighed, and pushed open to rusted door that led into the cafeteria.

The line was short by now, most people having already gotten food and sitting down, so it was a quick trip to get my usual ham and cheese sandwich and lemonade. Emmett cleaned out half the damn food there – I swear they had to make extra just for him.

As I waited for him to pay, I asked, "Are you sitting with me today?"

The time he took to reply was enough to tell me, but he simply said, "No."

I nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow then, yeah?"

He just nodded his reply, looking down at his tray. I smiled a little and walked towards the small table on the other side of the room.

Emmett was part of the football team – which shouldn't be surprising because of his stature. He was junior varsity now, and that generally meant he had to keep close to the varsity team – even during lunch. I was thrilled for him to be on the team, but I did miss our lunchtimes together. I knew he felt guilty about leaving me alone – except I wasn't really alone. I had Ange, and Jess and Ben. And sometimes Mike, though that boy made me uncomfortable.

"Hey," I quietly said, sliding into the seat next to Angela. I got a chorus of 'Hey's back, before they slipped back into the conversation they were having before hand. I ate, and listened, but it wasn't something I was really interested in, so I let them talk. The hour went quite fast, and I got up ready to go.

I walked quickly through the near empty halls, and arrived at the auditorium as fast as I could. There was no way I wanted to be caught alone in the halls with _her._ I waved to the teacher, who was sitting in the front row of the seats, and went to put my stuff in a hidden shelf backstage. When I came back out, more people were standing around on stage.

I found Jessica, who had come in late, and chatted with her while we waited for the teacher to start class. Mrs. Hendricks was…I'm not really sure what her qualifications are, but she's employed here as Forks High's drama, music and dance teacher. Unfortunately for me, she likes to bring dance into both drama and music. It's like she doesn't know the difference.

"Ok, class! Everybody seated!" her shrill voice pierced the noise everyone was making, shutting the room up effectively. We shuffled around, sitting in a circle on the stage, facing her.

"Right. So, as you know, this semester is going to be about musicals." cue groan, I thought. I was pretty pleased when a groan ripped through the room at her words.

"Oh, shut it, all of you. Where was I? Oh, right. The musical we're doing, is a rendition of Taming of the Shrew. I wrote it as a modern musical, so there's no 'thou' and 'art' and 'shall'." she paused, and Jessica's hand shot up in the air. Mrs. Hendricks nodded at her, eyebrows raised.

"Who are the leads?" she asked, rather excitedly, bouncing where she sat.

"I don't know." the teacher said, which surprised the whole class. Even I was blown away. She never, ever didn't have the leads chosen.

"I see I've surprised you all. Well, because this requires a lot of effort, and skill in multiple things, I've decided that we will practice for a few weeks. Then, we'll hold auditions, and I shall decide then." she told us, "So, everyone stretch, and by the time I come back, I want you all standing, focused, in neutral body."

She then promptly left the room.

Jess and I looked at each other. We stood up and started helping each other stretch out.

"Do you really think everyone'll have a fair chance?" she asked me, her face lighting up.

"Maybe. She'll probably choose seniors for the leads though," I said gently.

"I just have to practice loads then, right?" she sounded so determined.

"I guess you'll have to." I agreed with her.

"Imagine, I could get the lead with Edward!" her voice was so high pitched it hurt my ears.

"Tanya would kick your ass," I referred to Edward's self-proclaimed girlfriend. Jess' face faded a little bit.

"Nah, it's not like he'd be anywhere interested." she said, shaking her head, and her excitement coming back. I grinned at her. It was so easy for her to see the positive side to everything.

"Right! You should all be done by now!" our teachers voice reached us before she did, so we had time to quickly adopt the pose she wanted.

"Good. We're working on the dancing aspect today – don't you groan at me!" Mrs. Hendricks scolded, "Routine 5, that we put together last week, yeah? Ok."

She glided over to where the sound system was set up, and we cleared the stage. The song was 'What The Hell' by Avril Lavinge, and started with two girls and a guy onstage. We all clapped ourselves onstage, and did a series of movements, ending with us leaning in towards them. We twisted and landed on our knees, slowly rising up again. Then the other half of the class did the same. We started twirling and twisting in a canon. Half of us paused, halfway through movement, and after they had finished the movement, they paused. Repeating the same sequence of movements in a canon was easy enough, but I was dreading the next bit.

It started off easily enough, walking in time with the movement towards the front of the stage in lines, but then every one of us had to twirl outwards, in a circle. And keep twirling. Which looked effective…except for when the uncoordinated one fell over and took people with her. I took a breath, and started spinning. I went outwards in a big arch, and started spinning towards the back.

_I'm doing it!_ I thought surprised. I put my foot in front of the other to keep moving backwards, and it got caught. My legs spun around each other, getting tangled, and I dropped. More than dropped – I catapulted. Right into Jessica, which was alright, she understood. But Jess knocked Tanya over, and she would most definitely _not_ understand.

"You uncoordinated bitch! You knocked me over you moron!" Tanya screamed at the top of her lungs. Mrs. Hendricks had already stopped the music, and was hurrying over to make sure we were alright.

"Tanya! Stop shouting! Bella's legs just got tangled. Are you all ok?" her eyes glanced over all of us.

"No, that bitch tripped me on purpose!" Tanya screeched, cutting her glare between the teacher and myself.

"'That bitch' is named Bella. And she did not trip you on purpose, so shut your trap and get ready to go again," Mrs. Hendricks told Tanya, nodded to me. "Get in positions!"

Tanya grabbed my arm, "Try that again bitch, and you won't be able to walk let alone dance."

I shrugged out of her grip, and walked over to the left wings.

We kept going through it, but we never got further than the twirling. It was so frustrating. I knew that I could do it – I'd come here after last weeks lesson and practiced until I could do it. But knowing that all these people were watching me, and probably hoping that I'd fail…it got to me. I just wished I didn't care.

It was the last class of the day, so when Mrs. Hendricks dismissed us, I lingered in the room, knowing that Tanya was way faster than I was, and that if I tried to run, she'd just drag me back.

I waited until everyone had left the room, and then pulled all the mirrors to the front of stage, facing back at me. I turned on the music, and practiced. I got the twirling that time, even adding a few extra moves and twirls to the music, which I thought would make it look better. I kept practicing, pretending that everyone was surrounding me, pretending that I was in class. Thinking of their faces when I finally got it right. Would they be happy – no more falls? Or would they hate me more for it, that they couldn't torment me anymore over it?

I was angry at myself, so I just kept twirling, faster and faster. And when the song finished, I dropped to a knee and gave my reflection sarcastic jazz hands. My chest was heaving, I had tried so hard. But a slow clapping made me freeze, I wasn't even breathing.

_Miss has left. She wouldn't come back to torture me in school, where she could be caught? Should I run? How far would I get? Would she find my bag? What would happen if she did?_ A thousand thoughts went through my head in the time the person took to clap twice. I searched the mirrors for any sign of the person, and only relaxed a little when I saw the unclear reflection of a guy. Definitely not Tanya.

But it could be one of her minions.

"Is it stage fright or the attention that makes you fall over?" the guy had a deep voice, rough like bark yet smooth as velvet. One that I'd heard many times in the last few years. Edward Cullen

"Stage fright," I whispered, when I finally found my voice. He came closer in the reflection. I realized my hands were still up, and I dropped them. I stood up slowly, ready to run if I had to, even though the point would be moot.

"You look like I'm a serial murderer or something like that," he chuckled, coming even closer.

"Why are you here?" I asked shakily.

"I stayed to practice, but then I saw you." he answered me easily, like we had conversations all the time. A thought struck me. I scanned the mirrors again, not moving.

"Are you alone?" I could feel my body tensing up, even more than it was.

"Yes," he looked confused. I felt almost all the tension fall away from my body. It was only then that I turned around to face him.

"Don't tell anyone. I don't mean to fall over during class, but if you told, then they'd think that and I don't want any more attention drawn to it. Please," I begged with him, any thoughts of pretending to not care, or trying to intimidate him already out the window.

"I won't." he said simply, "Why do you fall over in class?"

"People," I sighed when he raised his eyebrows, telling me to continue, "Even though they're probably not even watching me, I feel like everyone's judging me. And I almost get it done, before I take a wrong step and…" I gestured with my hands to the floor.

He nodded thoughtfully. He looked at the mirrors, and I took the time to look him over. He had unruly bronze colored hair, with pale but obviously taken care of skin. He had emerald green eyes, and his features were straight, and angular, he was well built. He wore simple clothes – jeans that hung low on his hips, and a tee shirt that looked like a new version of the Nirvana shirt I had at home. I averted my eyes – no matter how beautiful he was, what must he be like if he hung around Tanya? _Dated_ Tanya?

"Are you going to try out for the one of the leads?" Edward asked me, breaking through my thoughts. I looked at him like he was nuts.

"Did you not see me this afternoon in class? What makes you think I'd make it as a lead?" I sounded incredulous, even to my own ears. He smiled.

"I saw you just then." he told me like it answered everything.

"Exactly," I said, "Away from people. Now you're suggesting for me to perform not only in front of my class, but also as a main in front of other people? Ha! No way in hell."

"You're not very self confident." he observed, cocking his head to the side.

"Obviously not. Getting picked on and beaten everyday by the biggest blonde bitch in the school probably has something to do with it." it was sarcastic, a thoughtless remark, but I regretted it the moment it was out of my mouth. But instead of getting mad at me, like I'd thought, he grinned.

"You know, not many people would say that to me, considering," he said.

"Considering what, Edward?"  
>"Well you know who I am, obviously. Considering what everyone thinks she is to me." he explained.<p>

"Everyone thinks? You mean what she tells everyone, what everyone observes." I was confused, and intrigued, and that sucked because I really wanted to bolt a.s.a.p.

"She doesn't tell anyone anything. They just assume." he told me, pretty firmly. I raised an eyebrow.

"'Bitch, don't even think about it. Edward's mine. We've been together since….forever.'" I made my voice high pitched and annoying. Edward let out a small laugh.

"She does sound like that, doesn't she?" he sobered, "Does she really tell people that?"

I nodded, "I've only seen a thousand times. She says it to Jess all the time, and all she does, is say you're hot."

"Does she ever have to say it to you?" he was trying to hold a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

"_All_ the time. That's why she hates me so much." my tone was dripping with sarcasm, and the slight smirk on his face fell.

"Very funny." he tried to pout, and I could see he was amused.

"_Sorry_. No, Tanya never talks to me about you. Or talks much for that matter." I informed him, nodding, and starting to walk around him. He grabbed my arm, to stop me I guess.

"Dude, I've got to get home. So, if you don't mind?" I raised my eyebrows expectantly.

"What's your name?" he asked me instead. I was pretty shocked. Like, I knew that he didn't pay attention to me, but I'd been around Em's place more than a couple times. I'd had dinner with the family multiple times, for god's sake.

"Figure it out," I told him, ripping my arm from his grasp and turning to go grab my bag.

I jumped into my truck, and thundered my way back to Charlie's. I struggled through some math homework for a little while, before throwing down my pen and walked downstairs. Charlie wasn't meant to be home for hours yet – it was barely 4 o'clock. I sighed, and grabbed a coke from the fridge, and the phone. I called my mom, and spoke with her.

Phil was fine, though the Suns were working him pretty hard. Renee was into yoga right now, though she's been pretty interested by gliding – something I had to beg Phil not to let her do. They were excited for this engagement party for one of Phil's teammates that was on tonight, and had to say goodbye earlier than usual to go get ready.

"Bells?" I heard Charlie come through the door, and walked down the hall slowly to talk to him.  
>"Hey. Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes, ok?" I told him, going to put the pre-marinated steak into the frying pan. I had prepared dinners all week, like I normally did. After dinner, I cleaned up the dishes, and went back up stairs to get ready for bed. I stared at myself for a little while in the mirror. I left to go to my room, flopping down on my bed. My phone decided to go of then. Groaning I got up and picked my phone up off my dresser.<p>

"Hello?" I answered, dropping onto my bed.

"Bella?" it was Emmett. I checked the clock – 8.06pm.

"You know, if you were going to be late, you could've just told me," I joked. Emmett was pretty punctual about calling me, everyday that he didn't sit with me at lunch.

"Did I interrupt Little-Miss-Princess in the middle of something, because I was like five minutes late?"

"Shuttup Em. How was practice?" I asked.

"It was alright." he paused, and I waited, knowing something was up. "Rose was talking to me today."

"Like she does everyday, without fail?" I replied.

"Today was different." he told me, seriously. I sat up.

"Different how?" I sounded worried, even to my own ears.

"She told me she liked me." he sounded devastated.

I frowned, "Because you haven't been hoping for that since the day you met her."

"Bells, just listen, would ya?" he sounded annoyed, and I nodded, not remembering he couldn't see me. "She told me she likes me…but then she said – and I'm quoting here – 'I don't like that little friend of yours. Like, at all. She annoys me to the max. She-'" He cut himself off.

My breath caught. It wasn't like I didn't know this already, but to have it confirmed…well it felt worse than I would have ever expected.

"She what, Emmett?" I asked.

"It was nothing Bells." he replied, trying to brush it off.

"It is, or you would tell me," I waited, "Emmett, you want my help with this. And I can't help you unless you tell me. So spill it."

"Bella…" he groaned, "Fine. She said that you…don't belong anywhere near me, or my friends."

I closed my eyes, "Maybe she's right."

"Isabella Swan, don't you ever say that. You're my best friend, have been before I even thought about joining this team. So shut your hole, and tell me how to deal with turning the girl I've been crushing on for three years down." he scolded me.

"Holy shit, Em." I was stunned, "Um, I'm not entirely sure. I haven't turned down anyone that I've liked for that long."

"Or even spoken to the one you've liked for that long." he chuckled. My face went beet red within seconds.

"You know, I never told you that, you just assumed." I tried to tell him off.

"Yeah, after seeing you go red and even quieter the moment he entered any room," he teased.

"Maybe its just hot all of a sudden." I was trying, even though I knew he knew.

"Ha! That was just you. Hot for Jassssssper," he teased, laughing his ass off on the other end of the line.  
>"Ok, I'm hanging up now," despite what I said, I didn't even move the phone.<p>

"Oh, come on Bells. You teased me all the time when you found out about Rose," he paused, "So, I can tease you all I want about liking her brother."

I rolled my eyes and layback down, "Or we can stop talking about the Hale twins all together."

"Whatever," he said, starting to talk about something that happened to Mike Newton today at practice.

We spoke for a while longer, but it was a school night, so I hung up at about nine. It was a long day, and I fell asleep quickly, blissfully not thinking about anything.

**I'm sorry for any mistakes. If you want to Beta the story, or know someone that might, please PM me. Thank you for reading, and please shoot me a review – would love to know how to make my writing better. Thank you again :) **

**~ Girlie xo**


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